Simon Cole's Blog

 

So it’s official - 12 years to save the planet. 

That’s according to the UN IPCC inter-governmental report.  Plus 1.5C above pre-industrial levels by 2030 will unleash irreversible and very dangerous changes in our environment.  All the accords and agreements so far reached (and not even en route to being achieved) are totally inadequate.

But we simply read and nod and carry on. 

Where is the shock, horror, and resolve to keep the planet habitable, from the adult 57% (aged 16-56) of the...

 

Everything exists in its own time...

but time passes and so there is nothing that we can possess...

coming soon... PATHWAYS by Simon Cole... author of 'Stillness in Mind' and 'Along the Way'

"We cannot own something as ephemeral as the passing of time in the way that we can own a physical object. We scoop up water from the stream in cupped hands, but in a few moments it trickles away. We watch time passing in the changes and movements of the world around, in the slow dissipation of intens...

 

I recently watched Stephen Poliakoff’s outstanding films ‘Joe’s Palace’ and ‘Capturing Mary’, which become a trilogy through the addition of a prequel to the second, though for some reason this is buried in its special features. Now, I recognise that Poliakoff is not everyone’s cup of tea and certainly not anyone’s feel-good moviemaker, with the rather operatic tone he gives to his staging and the shadowy foreboding which hovers around his storylines.

 

But if you are up for it, thes...

 

  Still the chattering mind…   So you’ve decided to set some time aside and just relax, you put on a disc or turn on the radio or get out a book and you think, “That’s great, that’s it, just listen, just read”, except that after a bit you realise you’re not really hearing the music or you can’t remember anything you’ve read...   Or perhaps you really want to use meditation, and you can get yourself ready and relax your body and use your breathing, but always those thoughts start leaking in...

Like curtains drawn across a window which obscurethe view -

suchis the busy-ness of the world and the activity of all our lives.

But part them a little, the curtains, and look through -

there, behind, is the stillness and the silence,

the peace of all our beginnings.

Related articles a companion to mindfulness, meditation and living Related StoriesLessons in the SandMeetingThat Chattering Mind

Why are we drawn to deserts? In our minds, even if we never make the journey.

From Old Testament times and beyond people have spent time in deserts, found space in the silence, sought counsel with the wind. For us today there are many places where we might find solitude, even in our bustling cosmopolitan world, if we are prepared to search them out, and in all of them, to some degree, we come face to face with ourselves.

But the desert is different in the way it confronts us and exposes us...

Liberalism on the run? Populism sweeping all before it?

Endangering those cherished values so hard-earned over 300 years?

Trump, AfD, UKIP, Marine Le Pen, Wilders... protectionism, extremism - aren'tthese anathema to democratic values?

But none are seeking to prevail by circumventing democratic process.

We (embattled liberals) squirm and seek to appease with promises of new starts, inclusivity and listening more.

But appease who? And who are we to appease anyway? If we think in those term...

From Along the Way, Simon Cole's new collection of themed meditations for day to day living, just out on Amazon 

 

...to not compare

 

contemplation (to be read before your sitting)

To make comparisons is human. It comes from consciousness, that gift which makes us different from animals... the gift that comes to us as infants, when we start to realise that we exist… separately.

To exist separately. To understand ‘I’ as ‘Me’. But then to understand ‘not I’ as ‘her’ or ‘him’ or ‘them’.

To look at another and see difference. To look at ourselves in the light of their difference. Or is it our difference?

To find difference is inevitable. To find fault, in others or ourselves, because of difference, is unnecessary. Because difference is what confirms ‘Me’.  

For each of us our difference, our not being ‘the other’, is the ground of our existence.  

Difference is existential; fault is judgement.

 

narration of meditation

Sit peaceably for a few moments without closing your eyes…

Be conscious of your sitting, noticing your place in what is around you…

Be aware that everything makes contact with the air, 

that everything in some way uses the air,

each in its own way…

Notice the air as you draw it into your body,

the air which all living creatures breathe…

Feel the air as you give it back, to be purified for others to use…

Rest with your breathing, gently drawing in and giving back what we all share…

Let the sense of your breathing and the air it uses be your connection with everything around …

Pass through your mind other people in your life,

as you hold the sense of the air you breathe connecting you with each separate being…

When it feels right, take three long breaths, opening your eyes to notice the world anew.

Again sit peaceably for a few moments, noticing your place in what is around you.

 

(from Connecting in 'Along the Way - themed meditations for day to day living' by Simon Cole available on Amazon UK Europe and USA)

 

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a companion to mindfulness, meditation and living



          Related StoriesMeetingA Mindful... Wine!"Everyday Mindfulness..." an extract from 'Stillness in Mind' 

 

 

The Guest House

 

(translated from the Persian by Coleman Barks)

 

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

 

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

As an unexpected visitor.

 

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still treat each guest honourably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

 

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the...

The Guest House

(translated from the Persian by Coleman Barks)

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

As an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still treat each guest honourably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door la...